THE WATERFALL
The Play Waterfall was written by
Rabindranath Tagore. The central
theme of the play deals with
human and environment
connection and human sacrifice
for justice and equality. It is
basically about the conflict
between Machine and Human
freedom . There are various
characters in the play are as
follows Ranajit -king of Uttarakut
and overlord of shivtarai, Abhijit-
The yuvaraja(crown prince) he is
not a son of the king but an
adopted child by king as his son.
Sanjaya - rajakumar or junior
prince, Bibhuti- the royal engineer
, the man who constructed the
dam across Mukta-
dhara,Vishwajit-Uncle of Ranajit
and king of mohangarh,he is also
a friend and admirer of
Abhijit.Dhananjaya-Ascetic,the
spiritual leader of the people of
shiv-tarai.He asks them to resist
evil by non-violence.
In the background is represented
the upper framework of a big iron
machine; opposite to
this is the spire of the Bhairava
temple, with its trident.
Ranajit, the king of Uttarakut, has
his royal tent in the mango grove
by the side of the road.
He is resting there on the way to
celebrate the evening festival, on
the dark night of the
moon. After twenty-five years of
strenuous effort, his royal
engineer, Bibhuti, has succeeded
in building up an embankment
across the waterfall called
Muktadhara.
The inhabitants of Uttarakut are
seen visiting the temple with their
offerings and preparing
to hold in the temple court-yard
the festival, which is to celebrate
the achievement of the
royal engineer, Bibhuti.
The temple devotees of Bhairava
are in the foreground. They are
seen making a long circuit
in religious procession round the
temple. As they sing the praises of
the god Bhairava, some
are swinging their censers, some
are beating the gongs, some are
blowing the conch shells. This is
the entire scenario of the play.
Rabindranath Tagore’s finest
play,The Waterfall takes place in
fictional Uttarakut which was
ruled by an autocratic king
Ranajit. Abhijit was the prince of
Uttarakut and the next heir to the
throne.The waterfall flows from
Uttarakut to a neighbouring valley
called Shiv-tarai. The waterfall
was the only source of water for
the people of Shiv-tarai.The
autocratic king Ranajit wanted to
bring Shivtarai under his control
and decides to subjugate the
people by damming the waterfall
thus denying them water.The
King employs the royal engineer
Bibhuti to build a sturdy dam to
prevent the water reaching the
plains below.This play was written
when India was in the clutches of
British.Tagore is comparing the
people of Shivtarai with Indians. In
the similar manner,Indians were
also exploited by the Britishers as
king Ranajit was tormenting
shivtarai citizens. The
Prince,Abhijit learns that he was
found by the king on the banks of
the waterfall.
This play highlights the dramatic
conflict arises out of the conflict
between man and the machine.
Because of human desire for
power, fame and wealth,he loses
his human values and becomes
dehumanized.In this play political
domination has portrayed as king
takes the decision to construct
the dam to prevent the flow of
river Muktadhara . So he orders
the royal engineer Bibhuti to build
a dam against the river.This
shows how king is taking
advantage of his power.
The prince love for the waterfall
and sympathy for the people lead
him to stop the king.The prince
demolished the machine and
makes the waterfall free.
In the end of the play the prince
swept away with his mother
Muktadhara by giving freedom to
the entire people living near
Shivtarai.
NAME: SUMMIYAH PARVEEN
2022530
BA (H) POLITICAL SCIENCE 2ND YEAR
VAC ECOLOGY AND LITERATURE WORK
SEMESTER3
